Today, I bring you an author interview with Emma Kimble - Maerki. Lets find out more about Emma and her writing.
Tell me a bit about yourself
My name is Emma Kimble-Maerki. I am 26 years old, with a wonderful husband named Mohamed, and a beautiful cat named Victoria. I was born and raised in Oregon, and still live there. I can’t imagine being anywhere else!
How long have you been writing?
I’ve been writing ever since I learned how to form letters on the page. And I’m not kidding! In second grade I wrote my first book. It was only a few pages long, and I think I still have it somewhere. If I can find it, I’ll post it on my twitter and instagram. I’ve always enjoyed telling stories. I can’t see myself not putting those stories down on paper!
Do you have a favourite book?
Oh that’s a hard question! It depends genre to genre, but as I’m a huge horror fan I’m going to have to pick Pet Semetary by Stephan King. He’s a masterful storyteller, and it was equal parts scary and tragic. It kept me hooked to the very end! Love it.
What inspires you to write your stories?
This is going to sound ridiculous but the stories just come to me. Typically what happens is I’m reading something, or I’m listening to a song, and then the story just falls into my head. So I suppose technically songs and stories inspire me. For instance I have a book that I shelved that is The Dawnguard quest from Skyim meets Coco meets the Lovely Bones. Totally different from any of those stories, but bits and pieces come from all three.
Can you tell me about your book, titled ‘Hypo Full of Love’
Oh man. 'Hypo Full of Love' is a deeply personal story to me. It's a love story featuring two men as the leads. As a queer woman, I grew up not seeing myself or my other queer friends in books, shows, or movies. I found myself writing fan-fiction to desperately find representation. Nowadays queer rep is getting a bit better, but this story is my love letter to the queer community. It’s for every queer person out there who wanted to see a queer love story and never got to. I chose to write about men instead of women because I’ve noticed that most queer rep is done with women, but not so much with men. So I thought I should help change that! There’s a second piece though. The book also deals with addiction, specifically heroin addiction. That hits home for me as I lost someone very dear to me to heroin addiction. It forever changed me as a person, and I wanted to explore that, and share some of the real hardships that go with it. I didn’t go into some of the truly horrific aspects, but I did try to make it real and meaningful.
Can you describe your writing process?
I listen to a lot of music while writing. I often make playlists for whatever I’m writing to help get the juices flowing. In fact, I usually have background noise while writing, even something like a fun YouTube video. When I write, I let my fingers do the work, writing down the story as it comes. I don’t bother to think too hard while I do it. It’s important to get the words on the paper instead of spending my whole life worrying about one paragraph during my first draft. I also have a specific chair that I like to write in. It’s in my living room and I really get into the groove when I sit on it. I have no idea why.
Who are your favourite authors, and how have they influenced your work?
Stephen King is my hero. I also enjoy Sherman Alexie, David Sedaris, and Blue Delliquanti. Blue is a comic artist and writer, but I consider comic writers to be authors. I know some people don’t, but that’s not me. A lot of my style has been influenced by Stephen King, though we have very different voices. I read his book On Writing, and a lot of what he said really spoke to me. I guess with the others I learned how to write in a fun, easy to read way. I don’t want to confuse my readers with flowery language. I want them to get into the story and have a great time.
Are are you working on anything at the moment?
Yes! I am writing another novel that is a queer paranormal romance. The working title is 'Esta Vida Loca', and I’m extremely excited about it. I’ve never done this genre before and I’m excited to learn as I go.
What advice would you give a new author?
I’m not traditionally published, so I’ll give my advice to self published authors. Don’t be discouraged if you’re not getting many sales. Here’s the thing--nobody is going to read your book if they don’t know who you are or that your book exists. Put yourself out there! Do promotions, get on social media and talk about your work! Network with other writers. Self publishing isn’t just about writing a book and hitting publish. It’s hard work, and you need to be ready for that.
Lastly, what interests do you have outside of writing?
The first thing that comes to mind is playing video games. I’m terrible at any and all video games but I love playing them, especially story driven games. I’m not really one for first person shooters. I love to cook and bake, and I also like to knit! Like video games, I’m terrible at knitting. Absolutely horrible. But I love it! It’s so relaxing. And lastly, I love to read. I have a hard time focusing on books now that I’ve grown older, but when I can really get stuck in a good story I will devour it. There’s a really good chance I’ll check out your book if it’s an audiobook though, because I can multitask while enjoying the story!
If you would like to check out Emma's work, click on the links below.
tiktok (@ekimwrites)
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